Well it's all done and dusted now. Results have been handed out, winners cheered and others given their "short, helpful comments" from the judge. Who were the winners? (Drumroll please) 1st: Elizabeth Robertson, "My father is never lonely", Runner-up: Shirley Eng, "A Bicycle sonnet", Commended: Janice Healey, "Water! Right!", and Mary Fitzgerald, "Post Spring Song". …
Sonnets for SIWA – part II: the deliberation
Well I'm making my final choices in the SIWA sonnet competition. It's been quite interesting. Encouraging in some ways, discouraging in others. My worry when I first sat down with the packet of entries was that I would be confronted with entry after entry in stilted, forced rhyme. Or bad pastiches of Keats, or Donne. …
Continue reading "Sonnets for SIWA – part II: the deliberation"
Sonnets for SIWA
I've been asked to judge a sonnet competition for the South Island Writer's Association, which should be fun. But being asked got me thinking about what exactly makes a sonnet. Where are the borders, the limits? I covered this briefly with my Polytech class (with varying amounts of success). We had a look at sonnets …
Jubilation, joy and undeserved good fortune
At last, I'm allowed to tell people. I won the inaugural Kathleen Grattan Award for Poetry! I actually found out about it a week ago, but was sworn to secrecy (with words like "embargoed" and "trappist") until the official announcement was made on Radio National yesterday afternoon. I still can't quite believe it. Joy, delight, …
Continue reading "Jubilation, joy and undeserved good fortune"
After the Launch
Back from the launch of Before the Sirocco in Wellington. It was a good night – heaps of people turned up, and included a large junior contingent from Christchurch. (Well done everyone!) Met lots of people who's names and poems I've been familiar with for the last few years, and generally had a ball. …
A Dark Feathered Art 